From Existence To Despair---an Existentialist Analysis Of The Heroine Lise In The Driver’s Seat

Muriel Spark (1918-2006) is one of the most widely read contemporary British writers, known as a Catholic satirist, a surrealistic writer, and a moral philosopher. With remarkable creativity and delicate perception, her literary works touch on a variety of genres and cover a wide range of subjects. It is quite benevolent for Spark to focus on the existence of modern people all through her life and women’s existing conditions particularly, which can find full expression between her lines. As one of her famous novels, The Driver’s Seat has received closer attention since its publication.The Driver’s Seat can be regarded as a representative novel exploring into women’s existential conditions during the postwar period of time. In this novel, Lise, the female protagonist is incapable of getting herself involved with the impersonal world. Disillusioned with the world, Lise cannot find a proper way to demonstrate her meaning of existence.So far, numerous of papers have been publicized in various journals in foreign countries as researches into Muriel Spark. But the domestic researches on Spark are still in scanty. They have just displayed introduction to her writings and some papers started their research with Spark’s Catholic religious background, and her unique writing style belonging to the postmodernism. Few have realized the existentialist factors presented in Spark’s works.Inspired by Jean-Paul Sartre’s existentialist theories of freedom of choice and alienation, the author of the thesis intends to interpret the heroine of this novel and explore the source of her tragedy with the standpoints of existentialism. Lise’s passive attitude towards life, her inability to involve herself in the social relationship, and the aftermath of World War Two all attribute to Lise’s inevitable tragic ending.Portrayed as a woman with an eccentric personality, Lise’s behavior is quite rebellious to the contemporary social standards. Being such an insignificant woman in the impersonal modern society, she finds it hard to be accepted by society. Although she has gradually formed the self-consciousness to be an independent woman, her efforts exerted to be accepted by the mainstream society turns out to be in vain. Disillusioned with the modern world, she cannot find an appropriate way to achieve her self-actualization.On the basis of the analysis, the author comes to a conclusion that on the one hand, people should show their deep concern for humans’living conditions, that is, existence, to break the alienation and impersonality in the modern society, which reveals so indifferent to others’ emotions; on the other hand, one should hold an optimistic attitude towards life and get involved with surroundings. To Spark, human beings, especially women, should bravely face the reality and try their best to undertake the pressure of the outside world. This explicitly demonstrates the authentic meaning of existentialism in terms of existence, freedom of choice, alienation and despair. Through an investigation of The Driver’s Seat, the author of the thesis will endeavor to reveal the existentialist factors that lie within this seemingly simple and much overlooked novel, and how Spark’s existentialist views conveyed in the heroine. The study will not only enrich existentialist interpretation of The Driver’s Seat, but it will also suggest a meaningful guidance to a better understanding of existence in the modern world.